COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (June 27, 2018)
The second half of the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) for Shotgun begins tomorrow with the Skeet competition at the International Shooting Park just south of the city on Fort Carson.
More than 225 young shotgun athletes from across the country have made their way to Colorado Springs to compete for NJOSC medals, glory and potential invitations to the National Junior Team. For a handful of athletes, this year’s NJOSC will also serve as a tune-up prior to the Shotgun Selection Match in late July, as well as the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship later in August in Changwon, South Korea. Junior Shotgun athletes earned their slots on the team for the World Championship during the Spring Selection match in March.
NJOSC, the annual celebration of young clay-crushing talent, began earlier this week with the Trap competition. Read the recap here[1].
The Skeet field of athletes may be smaller in numbers (71), but the competition will be fierce as the Junior Women’s Skeet medalists will all compete. Leading them will be in Katie Jacob (pictured, Rochester, Michigan), the defending 2017 Junior World Champion. Jacob also won gold at the Junior World Cup last year, setting Junior World Records at both events. The gold that eluded her, however, was the one won by her sister, Jacenta, who won last year’s NJOSC title.
Katie Jacob’s World Championship teammate Austen Smith (Keller, Texas), who won silver at the World Championship last year, had the top qualifying score at 2017’s NJOSC (122), but failed to win an overall medal. Look for her to challenge the Jacob sisters and last year’s bronze medalist at NJOSC and the World Championship Sam Simonton (Gainesville,
